Lightning & Thunder

Chapter Ten

By the third time she awoke, she was ready to be done with it all.

But finally, her eyes cracked open.

The ceiling was very boring. Plain white. There was a bright light shining somewhere in the corner of her vision. It was extremely annoying-forcing her to squint against the harsh glare.

She desperately wanted to raise her hand and block it out, but pain still ran through her at any movement.

To her side, however, she knew somebody was there. Whether it was a man or a woman, she did not know. Nor did it matter.

She just needed to know their intentions.

And where she was.

She tested her throat muscles. A haggard, almost coughing-like sound came out of her when pain errupted in response. She could feel the person next to her move closer, just now realizing that she was awake.

A strong jaw came into view.

A very strong jaw.

Her eyes followed that jaw up to a straight nose, and then up to soft-brown eyes.

A noise made in the back of her throat.

She liked brown eyes.

His eyes caught hers, widening slightly. His entire demeanor froze, and his nostrils flared just the slightest.

She had no idea what that was about. Didn't really matter.

He was cute.

She could feel her own eyes squint a little more. Her eyebrows drew up a little.

Did they give her something? She didn't feel quite right.

Careful. Her brain seemed to tell her. She didn't know this man. For all she knew, he could be another Bessell.

He wasn't to be trusted. Right.

Especially not after Jameson.

She'd hate to have to kill another man if he tried to touch her. Not that they didn't deserve it, or anything.

At the thought, her eyes zeroed in on the mysterious man's neck. She imagined her sharp teeth sinking into the soft flesh, his blood running down her chin.

Her stomach did a flip.

She pushed the thoughts away.

It was not the time to get nauseous.

The man was still looking down at her, though worry seemed to be etched into his face. For what reason? Who knew.

Again, she tried to speak.

And again, it came out like a gargle.

"Shh, shh." The strange man muttered, his finger to his lips. "Don't try to speak just yet. You're badly injured. You need to rest."

She could have told him that, but okay.

Her body flinched as a cup was pushed towards her lips. A hand slipped behind her head, helping her to the rim of the cup.

Her stomach continued to do more weird flips.

She felt almost itchy with him touching her so gently. It was such a foreign feeling to her body. If she was able to use her hand, she would've swatted his away.

"Drink up this tea. It was a herbal made by the doctor. It's supposed to help you heal twice as fast, though you've already made a lot of progress."

This? This was progress?
She couldn't believe it. Eagerly, she drank the tea.

And then she gagged a second later, liquid falling down onto her shirt.

Nice.

Heat bloomed in her cheeks. She couldn't even imagine what she looked like, all helpless and bruised, with disgusting tea dribble running down her.

She appreciated the man wiping it away, however. Even though she cringed when she saw how green the towel was when he pulled it away. Oh well.

"Yeah I know, the tea is pretty gross. But the doctor told me you need to drink all of it." He said, chuckling a little.

He put the tea to her lips again, and reluctantly, she obliged.

The second time wasn't any better. Her body kicked back a little, forcing her to gag a few times. But she did it.

Eventually, she had the entire thing down.

And then he gently laid her back down on the cotton pillow, giving her a little pat on the head at the end.

Her eyes narrowed.

She watched the man shuffle around a bit, doing random odd tasks. He kept himself busy cleaning dirty mugs that were stacked next to a sink. After a couple minutes she grew bored, and situated her eyes elsewhere.

The tea buzzed throughout her body, making her limbs grow all warm and fuzzy, taking the pain away from her.

This time, she could feel herself fall back asleep.